Heating oil users face fuel or food winter choice'

With the summer gone and the central heating going on, people who use heating oil in their homes are facing the prospect of filling their tanks, at much higher prices than they have been used to.

Many will pay nearly double what they had to last year because of a rise in prices since the start of the Iran war.

It has led people like Liz Humphris, from Bishop's Castle in Shropshire, to limit how much they buy at once to help ends meet. "Now, I just order 500 litres at a time because it costs too much," she said.

Ministers said on Tuesday they would tighten up rules, promote competition and give customers clearer compensation routes if things go wrong.

Minimum order levels, set for some customers, will be reviewed.

As prices remain volatile, but significantly higher than in recent winters, campaigners have called for heating oil customers to benefit from a similar cap to that on mains gas and electricity tariffs in England, Scotland and Wales.

There is no promise this will happen, but ministers said they would work to "develop a regulatory regime for the heating oil market, protecting consumers and promoting competition."

Humphris said she had noticed the jump in prices: "It is costing over £500 for 500 litres, so it has gone up hugely."

Humphris added that she felt for people she knew who had to use food banks, like the one she volunteers for.

"I am reasonably OK because I've got a teacher's pension, so I am not destitute or anything," she said.

"For people who are on a very fixed income, it literally is coming down to the point where it is fuel or food, which is awful because you've got to heat your home."

According to Shropshire Council, about 15 per cent of households in its area rely on oil-fuelled central heating, which is between 16,000 and 21,000 properties.

But within the county there are large variations, with the South Shropshire constituency having one of the highest percentages of homes without mains gas across the UK, at 53%.

It has led to co-operatives forming to bulk buy heating oil at cheaper prices, including one set up by the charity Community Resource., external

Hanna Clarke, who is the fundraising lead at the charity, said people coming to them were struggling with rising prices.

"It is different to your electricty and your gas. You can't necessarily put it on a direct debit and spread that cost out across the 12 months - you have to fill up your tank," she said.

"To be able to do it, lots of the suppliers have minimum orders, so that is the one sort of key issue that we are having, that they just literally cannot afford that big increase in the cost per unit now."